In the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, drones are well known for their military uses, whether for surveillance or air strikes. They have even won literary acclaim, with the recent publication of a thriller by an author writing under the pseudonym Doa, whose title, “Pukhtu primo” is a clear allusion to this part of the world.

In my eyes, international corporate volunteering is a crucial step in a career in exports. This experience will be valued by future employers and will reassure the candidate of their ability to adapt to environments very different from French society.

The terrorist attacks of 13 November in Paris have triggered much emotion in Kabul. As early as the Saturday morning, numerous personalities contacted the Embassy to express their solidarity and a lengthy procession of visitors started, which would last around two weeks.

I cannot take my eyes off of something that so ironically sums up the human tragedy playing out in these places. It’s lying on the ground, motionless, abandoned, covered in mud. It’s a stuffed bear, like all those that are held tightly at night and played with by our children, and provide them comfort when they are upset. It was torn from the arms of its young protector and is lying amid debris in the mud of these last metres of Greek territory before reaching the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Today, the Channel Tunnel has made London almost as close as Brussels. For this feat to be possible, a structure with a unique management model had to be created, in which the French Ministry played a key role.

If I’d been told before arriving at the Quai d’Orsay (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development) that I would find myself in the official motorcade of the Chinese President, rolling up the empty Champs-Élysées and tempted to wave like the Queen of England at all the gawkers taking photos of my car, I wouldn’t have believed it.